Apples for Cooking, Baking, and Snacking

Apples can be loosely grouped into three categories:

• Fresh apples for eating
• Cooking apples
• Cider apples

Cooking apples should be flavorful and firm. Heat breaks down an apple’s structure quickly and reduces its flavor. Hard, full flavored varieties, such as Gala, Braeburn, Rome, and Granny Smith, can take the heat and still retain their taste and shape.

For applesauce, a soft apple like McIntosh is a natural. Softer apples make smooth, creamy applesauce, whereas harder types give you a chunkier sauce. Leaving the skin on gives the applesauce a reddish pink tint.

Cider is often made from apples that have fallen from the tree, known as windfalls. The best cider is made by combining sweeter apples such as Empire with tarter varieties like Jonagold.

Here is just a small list of apple varieties:

Braeburn

Can be eaten out of hand or used in cooking. Firm and juicy, it has a pleasant, sweet tart flavor. It’s harvested in late October and, if handled properly, will store well.

Cortland

A good choice for a fresh fruit salad. Its very white flash is slow to turn brown. A good all purpose apple. It is harvested in September and October.

Empire

A super crisp eating apple that tastes similar to a McIntosh. Picked starting in September, it is best eaten raw or in salads.

Fuji

A relative newcomer to the apple scene. Sweet and juicy, it’s excellent eaten fresh. It’s available October through December but stores extremely well if refrigerated.

Gala

A New Zealand native now grown in the United States, is a medium size apple with a unique yellow, orange, and red striped skin. It is outstanding for eating fresh, in salads, or cooked for desserts and applesauce.

Golden Delicious

Ranges from pale green to warm yellow. The yellower the fruit, the sweeter and softer it is. Use it in tarts and salads.

Granny Smith

Harvested in October. It stores well, and imports make it available year round. It is a little tart for some, but is a good cooking and baking apple. Paler green fruit is usually riper and sweeter.

Jonagold

A cross of Jonathan and Golden Delicious, is crisp, juicy, and sweet, with enough tartness to make it good for cooking. Best just picked. It is harvested in late September.

Macoun

A relative of the McIntosh but has a deeper carmine skin and is more versatile in the kitchen. It is harvested in late September and October.

McIntosh

A favorite variety in the Northeast, where it is eaten fresh and used in applesauce. It is not a good keeper, so enjoy it around harvest time in September.

Red Delicious

With its brilliant crimson skin and unique five knob base, is best eaten raw. Harvested in October, it is available year round, but avoid it in the spring and summer when it tends to be soft and mealy.

Rome

Has a soft round shape that makes it a popular choice for baked apples. It is good for cooking and baking.